Ziggy’s Goodway Cafe To Open On N. 27th St.

It’s been a tough few years for Randy Torrance.

In 2017 he was diagnosed with cancer; then in 2018 he lost both his mother and his son. “You keep trying to go forward,” he told Urban Milwaukee in an interview. “I can’t base my life off of all the bad events.”

Now Torrance is looking toward the future and building a business with his longtime friend Zeb “Ziggy” Allen. That business is a new restaurant at 925 N. 27th St. called Ziggy’s Goodway Cafe.

“We have a story,” he said.

“We really care about the food, we really care about the community over here,” he said. “We’re just trying to make things better and make people happy through our food, I guess.”

Torrance and Allen both have decades of experience in the restaurant industry, Torrance said, having come up through the ranks in kitchens, starting as dishwashers. Though Torrance concedes that Allen is the better cook.

Torrance owns the Goodway Grille, which is the site of their planned cafe, and Allen owns a catering company called Ziggy Mealz. The two decided to combine their businesses and create Ziggy’s Goodway Cafe. Torrance said his former restaurant the Goodway Grille is shut down, and he’s starting over fresh with the cafe.

The new restaurant will be a counter-serve, takeout place. It will be fast food in the sense that the food will be served quickly. But Torrance said the food won’t resemble typical fast food made from frozen ingredients.

“We don’t do anything frozen,” he said. “Not even the chicken strips.”

Ziggy’s Goodway will be breaking down chickens and large cuts of beef and making their own seasonings and patting out burger patties.

The plan for the menu, Torrance said, is a lot of fish, chicken, burgers, Italian beef, turkey legs – including jerk turkey legs – and Ziggy wraps. These wraps are a popular item that Allen pioneered at Ziggy Meals, Torrance said.

These fast food and takeout favorites will be made with care and attention to ingredients, Torrance said. “We really care about the food,” he said. “That’s why it’s the Goodway, we don’t want to do it any other way.”